It turns out that if you've lost more than about 10% of your body weight that you've had for a long time your body goes into starvation mode even if you do eat that certain amount of fat and calories. Starvation mode (i.e., appetite related hormonal changes normally associated with starvation) kicks in with weight loss and stays around for a year or more even if you are eating normally.
The oil industry was effectively nationalized decades ago. The industry operates under absolutely strangling regulation and government essentially dictates everything that happens at a refinery right down to when the workers take a leak.
Um, So The Fuck What?
If you want to see tight regulation, try working in a pharmaceutical facility. Or maybe a nuclear plant. Guess what: if your workplace is likely to affect the health of LOTS and LOTS of people, I WANT it tightly regulated.
No, a refinery disruption at one west coast refinery ONLY caused west coast gas prices to rise. Refinery capacity in other areas of the US couldn't help gas prices on the west coast. If the US had more refineries, a disruption to one refinery wouldn't have such an impact. The US has half the refineries it had 30 years ago due to NIMBY. If there's a shortage on the west coast, excess capacity in other areas of the US don't help much.
If by "disruption" you mean the refinery kept making and stockpiling gasoline while reporting being shut down, and by NIMBY you mean oil companies lobbying against their competitors opening new refineries in order to keep the price up, then OK, you're right. In California oil companies buy up refineries not to increase capacity but to shut them down and raise margins.
The dirty little secret is that the big bad oil companies are not taking in oddles of tax payer subsidies... the big boys were exempted from many of the tax advantages which are being vilified... or are things which are available to nearly all companies in nearly all industries.
"Among the top 10 most profitable companies, energy companies ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) and Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) were on the low end of the list, paying 8 percent, 4 percent and 2 percent, respectively, of their total earnings to the U.S. federal government."
Build more refineries, bigger refineries, and we won't have this nonsense
Er, by nonsense you mean higher profit margins every time a refinery goes down? Guess who goes "envirowacko" and lobbies against competitors building new refineries based on environmental grounds? Guess who reports their refineries are down and enjoys the spike in prices while their refineries are actually still producing and they are stockpiling gasoline?
I don't know about the IP surrounding using gorilla glass as a screen, but gorilla glass I is about 50 years old and in the public domain. Either way I'd guess the less scrupulous Chinese manufacturers should be offering gorilla glass screens at a discount.
I think you've just convinced the people who make all of those things (the ones that are still made, that is) to switch to smartphone remotes. Their costs go down if they don't have to include a remote, and your having to buy again when they don't upgrade the remote app for future smartphone OS releases is right out of the planned obsolescence playbook. Win-win - for them.
- Why do we assert that socio-economics do not have an impact on this trend then go on to demonstrate vast disparities within US regions that show significant differences in socio-economic status?
FTA: "Americans still fare worse than people in other countries even when the analysis is limited to non-Hispanic whites and people with relatively high incomes and health insurance, nonsmokers, or people who are not obese. "
The report of course recognizes that socioeconomics has an impact. It also points out that socioeconomics only accounts for part of the variance.
- Why do these outcomes suddenly reverse after age 75?
The outcomes don't reverse after age 75, suddenly or otherwise. The WSJ article tried to simplify and got it wrong. The study says we stay ranked no higher than 15th out of 17 in mortality rates for all age groups except above 75. Above 75-80 the mortality rates are so high it may as well be a 17-way tie; there just aren't many years of life lost to marginally higher mortality rates at age 80.
There are plenty of other ways kids accidentally die that you wouldn't think of regulating because it would too be intrusive. But in your mind firearms are a privilege, while a swimming pool is an unquestionable entitlement.
Plenty of states and counties require you to have a fence around your pool. But the big accidental death risk for kids is cars, and we regulate the hell out of how kids interact with cars.
In a thread about life expectancy, I'll agree that safe storage won't make a big difference either way. Universally mandated gun safes would prevent some of the tragic accidents and suicides. Conversely its unclear (especially with the NRA shooting down public funding for gun crime related research) how many lives are saved via quick access to a firearm in the home outside of saying "it's not that many".
What would make a big difference: requiring background checks and serial numbers for all gun sales.
Physics, Math, Chemistry. My first Physical Chemistry course was this demon of a professor solving problems on a blackboard faster than I could write them in my notebook for over an hour. At least I could keep up in Introductory Relativity and Diff EQ.
That said, touchscreen and desktops don't seem like a good match for most circumstances. I could see having a secondary monitor lying face up between the keyboard and the main monitor as a good way to present lots of toolboxes though. It wouldn't take any more time to reach than the mouse.
how the heck will a drone open my mailbox to deliver the mail/package? Note, large "rural" style mailbox at the end of the driveway, slightly rusty. It takes a good yank to get the door open.
I think the system would work best if the delivery location is the location of your smartphone. Let the phone and the drone talk amongst themselves, then drone drops the package in your hands.
There was a scare some time ago, where cows where dying from cyanid gass sudenly released from some new supergrass, that was reported as GM grass, but turned out not to be, produced by non-GM means.
Not even new or supergrass, it was an old standard hybrid. Cyanide production is a natural defense against grazing.
I think you're thinking of the latter, he's talking about the former. Markup is based on production cost and doesn't take into account all of the other stuff.
"Organic" is a marketing term that is largely undefined.
Actually, the term "Organic" is very carefully defined - by the very large agribusiness concerns that control the board that decides which practices are allowed under the organic label in the USA. Oddly enough, those practices are increasingly the ones that garner large profits for large agribusinesses, as opposed to the ones that fit the "organic" aesthetic or suit the small farms that people envision as being the producers of organic foods.
If that became popular the media companies would just add a term that the license is for use by a natural person and not valid for a corporation, if they don't already say that.
So the corporation would have to be formed in a country that recognizes corporations as people... j/k.
It would still work well for software: business application licenses are meant to be owned by one company and used by one person (at a time).
Could we do to copyright what companies do to avoid paying real estate tax in California? In CA, properties aren't reassessed for tax purposes unless they are sold. So companies don't sell real estate, they sell a shell company that technically owns the property. The property never actually changes ownership, so the taxes remain based on its valuation from 1982 or whatever.
So we just need a free way to set up a corporation. Have your corporation buy an mp3 or a movie. When you're done with it, sell the corporation for $3. Problem solved.
In this case it's probably not bribes (common as that is), but politicians putting their corn-growing state before the country. Corn is not a good source of ethanol but it's great for the economies of states like Iowa and Illinois.
Yup. California refiners wanted to meet the requirement by importing cheaper ethanol from South America, but the feds blocked it.
Granted, the attorneys on both sides see most of the money. But if you look at class actions as taking unjust gains away from companies, rather than reimbursing consumers, class action are, other than government action, the only way to really hold these companies accountable for their actions.
I've always thought that the cries about lawsuit reform were as much about companies wanting to be able to get away with defrauding customers/stockholders as about avoiding shakedowns. Lerach was probably hated just as much for exposing stock option backdating as he was for being a shakedown artist.
That said, I think there is a good way to reform class action lawsuits: strict parity in payouts for the class and their attorneys, both in kind and in time. By that I mean that if the settlement is $10 million in vouchers for goods/services then the lawyers receive ~$3.5 million in vouchers - no cash. They are free to try to sell their coupons on ebay - at which point they will discover the actual dollar value of the settlement. If the settlement is cash then the attorneys are paid at the same time as the class. In a complicated case where the settlement is a trust that pays damages over time, the lawyers are paid incrementally as the trust pays out damages, not when the trust is established. Again the attorneys are welcome to sell the revenue stream to someone who is willing to give them an immediate lump sum. They will probably get ~60 cents on the dollar. In either case, some strict maximums on the percentage of a settlement that can go to the attorneys should be established.
Basically, I think a lot of the worst of the excesses of the class action system would go away if attorneys' interests were more closely aligned with the classes they represent.
When I want to buy a game that is only available on Steam I download it from TPB or KAT instead. The torrent version has an additional feature other than its lower cost: it allows me to install it without an internet connection. That's the kind of feature that I don't need all that often, but when I need it I really need it.
You do realize that you're talking about really needing to play a game, right? What exactly would the consequence be of your having to wait until you have an internet connection to install a game?
Slashdot Mirror
It turns out that if you've lost more than about 10% of your body weight that you've had for a long time your body goes into starvation mode even if you do eat that certain amount of fat and calories. Starvation mode (i.e., appetite related hormonal changes normally associated with starvation) kicks in with weight loss and stays around for a year or more even if you are eating normally.
The oil industry was effectively nationalized decades ago. The industry operates under absolutely strangling regulation and government essentially dictates everything that happens at a refinery right down to when the workers take a leak.
Um, So The Fuck What?
If you want to see tight regulation, try working in a pharmaceutical facility. Or maybe a nuclear plant. Guess what: if your workplace is likely to affect the health of LOTS and LOTS of people, I WANT it tightly regulated.
No, a refinery disruption at one west coast refinery ONLY caused west coast gas prices to rise. Refinery capacity in other areas of the US couldn't help gas prices on the west coast. If the US had more refineries, a disruption to one refinery wouldn't have such an impact. The US has half the refineries it had 30 years ago due to NIMBY. If there's a shortage on the west coast, excess capacity in other areas of the US don't help much.
If by "disruption" you mean the refinery kept making and stockpiling gasoline while reporting being shut down, and by NIMBY you mean oil companies lobbying against their competitors opening new refineries in order to keep the price up, then OK, you're right. In California oil companies buy up refineries not to increase capacity but to shut them down and raise margins.
The dirty little secret is that the big bad oil companies are not taking in oddles of tax payer subsidies... the big boys were exempted from many of the tax advantages which are being vilified... or are things which are available to nearly all companies in nearly all industries.
"Among the top 10 most profitable companies, energy companies ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) and Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) were on the low end of the list, paying 8 percent, 4 percent and 2 percent, respectively, of their total earnings to the U.S. federal government."
http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2012/08/06/conocophillips-exxon-chevron-paid.html?page=all
Doesn't look like they were exempted from much.
Build more refineries, bigger refineries, and we won't have this nonsense
Er, by nonsense you mean higher profit margins every time a refinery goes down? Guess who goes "envirowacko" and lobbies against competitors building new refineries based on environmental grounds? Guess who reports their refineries are down and enjoys the spike in prices while their refineries are actually still producing and they are stockpiling gasoline?
I don't know about the IP surrounding using gorilla glass as a screen, but gorilla glass I is about 50 years old and in the public domain. Either way I'd guess the less scrupulous Chinese manufacturers should be offering gorilla glass screens at a discount.
I'll sell you a multiple virtual remote organizer app ...
Could we get Intel to issue an edict to PC partners that they quit using crap trackpads on their laptops, ultra or not?
I think you've just convinced the people who make all of those things (the ones that are still made, that is) to switch to smartphone remotes. Their costs go down if they don't have to include a remote, and your having to buy again when they don't upgrade the remote app for future smartphone OS releases is right out of the planned obsolescence playbook. Win-win - for them.
- Why do we assert that socio-economics do not have an impact on this trend then go on to demonstrate vast disparities within US regions that show significant differences in socio-economic status?
FTA: "Americans still fare worse than people in other countries even when the analysis is limited to non-Hispanic whites and people with relatively high incomes and health insurance, nonsmokers, or people who are not obese. "
The report of course recognizes that socioeconomics has an impact. It also points out that socioeconomics only accounts for part of the variance.
- Why do these outcomes suddenly reverse after age 75?
The outcomes don't reverse after age 75, suddenly or otherwise. The WSJ article tried to simplify and got it wrong. The study says we stay ranked no higher than 15th out of 17 in mortality rates for all age groups except above 75. Above 75-80 the mortality rates are so high it may as well be a 17-way tie; there just aren't many years of life lost to marginally higher mortality rates at age 80.
poor health translates to increased morbidity and disability, not just shorter lifespans.
There are plenty of other ways kids accidentally die that you wouldn't think of regulating because it would too be intrusive. But in your mind firearms are a privilege, while a swimming pool is an unquestionable entitlement.
Plenty of states and counties require you to have a fence around your pool. But the big accidental death risk for kids is cars, and we regulate the hell out of how kids interact with cars.
In a thread about life expectancy, I'll agree that safe storage won't make a big difference either way. Universally mandated gun safes would prevent some of the tragic accidents and suicides. Conversely its unclear (especially with the NRA shooting down public funding for gun crime related research) how many lives are saved via quick access to a firearm in the home outside of saying "it's not that many". What would make a big difference: requiring background checks and serial numbers for all gun sales.
Physics, Math, Chemistry. My first Physical Chemistry course was this demon of a professor solving problems on a blackboard faster than I could write them in my notebook for over an hour. At least I could keep up in Introductory Relativity and Diff EQ. That said, touchscreen and desktops don't seem like a good match for most circumstances. I could see having a secondary monitor lying face up between the keyboard and the main monitor as a good way to present lots of toolboxes though. It wouldn't take any more time to reach than the mouse.
how the heck will a drone open my mailbox to deliver the mail/package? Note, large "rural" style mailbox at the end of the driveway, slightly rusty. It takes a good yank to get the door open.
I think the system would work best if the delivery location is the location of your smartphone. Let the phone and the drone talk amongst themselves, then drone drops the package in your hands.
There was a scare some time ago, where cows where dying from cyanid gass sudenly released from some new supergrass, that was reported as GM grass, but turned out not to be, produced by non-GM means.
Not even new or supergrass, it was an old standard hybrid. Cyanide production is a natural defense against grazing.
You'll still have to perform annual returns.
Organize them as sole proprietorships not C-corps?
I think you're thinking of the latter, he's talking about the former. Markup is based on production cost and doesn't take into account all of the other stuff.
"Organic" is a marketing term that is largely undefined.
Actually, the term "Organic" is very carefully defined - by the very large agribusiness concerns that control the board that decides which practices are allowed under the organic label in the USA. Oddly enough, those practices are increasingly the ones that garner large profits for large agribusinesses, as opposed to the ones that fit the "organic" aesthetic or suit the small farms that people envision as being the producers of organic foods.
So we just need a free way to set up a corporation.
Odds are some country has had the bright idea (well, not really) of allowing companies to incorporate for free online.
If that became popular the media companies would just add a term that the license is for use by a natural person and not valid for a corporation, if they don't already say that.
So the corporation would have to be formed in a country that recognizes corporations as people ... j/k.
It would still work well for software: business application licenses are meant to be owned by one company and used by one person (at a time).
Could we do to copyright what companies do to avoid paying real estate tax in California? In CA, properties aren't reassessed for tax purposes unless they are sold. So companies don't sell real estate, they sell a shell company that technically owns the property. The property never actually changes ownership, so the taxes remain based on its valuation from 1982 or whatever. So we just need a free way to set up a corporation. Have your corporation buy an mp3 or a movie. When you're done with it, sell the corporation for $3. Problem solved.
In this case it's probably not bribes (common as that is), but politicians putting their corn-growing state before the country. Corn is not a good source of ethanol but it's great for the economies of states like Iowa and Illinois.
Yup. California refiners wanted to meet the requirement by importing cheaper ethanol from South America, but the feds blocked it.
Granted, the attorneys on both sides see most of the money. But if you look at class actions as taking unjust gains away from companies, rather than reimbursing consumers, class action are, other than government action, the only way to really hold these companies accountable for their actions.
I've always thought that the cries about lawsuit reform were as much about companies wanting to be able to get away with defrauding customers/stockholders as about avoiding shakedowns. Lerach was probably hated just as much for exposing stock option backdating as he was for being a shakedown artist.
That said, I think there is a good way to reform class action lawsuits: strict parity in payouts for the class and their attorneys, both in kind and in time. By that I mean that if the settlement is $10 million in vouchers for goods/services then the lawyers receive ~$3.5 million in vouchers - no cash. They are free to try to sell their coupons on ebay - at which point they will discover the actual dollar value of the settlement. If the settlement is cash then the attorneys are paid at the same time as the class. In a complicated case where the settlement is a trust that pays damages over time, the lawyers are paid incrementally as the trust pays out damages, not when the trust is established. Again the attorneys are welcome to sell the revenue stream to someone who is willing to give them an immediate lump sum. They will probably get ~60 cents on the dollar. In either case, some strict maximums on the percentage of a settlement that can go to the attorneys should be established.
Basically, I think a lot of the worst of the excesses of the class action system would go away if attorneys' interests were more closely aligned with the classes they represent.
When I want to buy a game that is only available on Steam I download it from TPB or KAT instead. The torrent version has an additional feature other than its lower cost: it allows me to install it without an internet connection. That's the kind of feature that I don't need all that often, but when I need it I really need it.
You do realize that you're talking about really needing to play a game, right? What exactly would the consequence be of your having to wait until you have an internet connection to install a game?